Imaginary Mary

My girl Jenna Elfman is back again this time in a new series for "ABC" called "Imaginary Mary" and it's very funny and different and for sure it's a sexy eye candy treat since it has Jenna Elfman in it! All of us can relate to having an imaginary friend from our childhood days, only with this series the little friend comes back to life and follows this sexy adult woman around in life to help her make choices. Jenna Elfman is Alice a workaholic sports public relations director who finally meets a guy of interest named Ben(Steve Schneider)who's a single father and how will Alice balance it all, well her little blue friend gives her advice on dealing with kids and having intimacy! Only it's seems that the little creature is a troublemaker! Still plenty of fun is had as Alice is one sexy colored bra wearing modern girl(Jenna Elfman rocks she's so sexy and cute). Overall good fun little series to watch that teaches life, while it takes things carefree and of course watch it for Jenna Elfman!

I love Jenna Elfman, she's a very talented physical comedienne and often very affecting in dramatic roles. The 3 kids were funny and clever, too. BUT - I would pay to watch an episode in which she immolated that stupid fugly stuffed thing on a hibachi while basting it with Wild Turkey and stabbing it to death with a barbecue fork.

The show is OK, but nothing Mary does or says anymore is funny. Most of her lines these days are like "way to go!" or "woo who!" - what would make the show great is if Mary was a total nutcase and made Alice's life a living hell.

There are funny moments that come from the interaction between Alice and the family though.

I do not usually have much to say about live-action film and TV because I can remember what I see in animation easier, but I will say what I can about this. Imaginary Mary had a very cool and creative idea - a live action-CGI animation hybrid where Alice's imaginary friend returns from her childhood to help her date a divorced dad of three kids. I am disappointed that so many people didn't like this show in its inception. It was nowhere near the worst sitcom I ever saw, but ABC had so little faith in this show that they cut its original 13-episode order down to 9. I think I know why, though. I always liked Imaginary Mary, but one problem I always had with it, one problem that made it hard for me to remember what actually happened in the episodes, was that I can't remember what Mary actually contributed to the plot in each episode. Mary only gets a few scenes in each episode, and every so often she comes up to give Alice some dating advice or other stuff that leads to the conflict or solves it. Mary was funny in most scenes that she had, but now I do not blame ABC for wanting to get rid of this show so quickly if the plots didn't need Mary at all. It is hard to find a good execution for this strange kind of stuff. When the 2015 book The Rest Of Us Just Live Here doesn't know how to make a story about the non-magic kids in a magic world interesting, you realize why no one else does it. Actually, Powerless knew how to make that interesting: by having the DC superheroes or supervillains affect the plots of the "Powerless" people, and that worked out pretty well, so I don't know why that show didn't take off either, but at least I know what makes it better than Imaginary Mary. I do not know where I can find episodes of Imaginary Mary or Powerless nowadays, since it was nearly three years since the last time Imaginary Mary was reviewed here and they are far from the 52-episode syndication minimum, but I really would love to see both of them again to see if they are worthy of becoming a cult classic. Speaking of cult classics, I am very sorry Freaks and Geeks did not work out for NBC. Trying to be a full-hour drama with a comedic setup did not mix.

If this had been made in the 1990s, it would be right at home on TGIF between Step by Step and Boy Meets World. Jenna Elfman is the QUEEN of physical comedy (and Stephen Schneider is no slouch either). My favorite characters have to be the kids though, especially Andy. The kid that plays him is HILARIOUS. (Teenage me would have been super in love with him, for sure.) Rachel Dratch as Mary is super fun too and she is used just the right amount, not overwhelmingly so.

Imaginary Mary is just one of those sitcoms with a simple, well executed premise that the whole family can enjoy. It really has so much potential, hopefully ABC thinks so too.